Prof. David Snowden
Chief Scientific Officer, The Cynefin Company
David is the creator of the Cynefin Framework and the originator of SenseMaker®, the world’s first distributed ethnography tool. He is lead author of *Managing complexity (and chaos) in times of crisis: A field guide for decision-makers*, developed in collaboration with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the Cynefin Centre. As founder and Chief Scientific Officer of The Cynefin Company and founder and Director of the Cynefin Centre, his international work spans government and industry, focusing on complex strategy and organisational decision-making. He is widely recognised for pioneering a science-based approach to organisations, drawing on anthropology, neuroscience and complex adaptive systems theory, and is a sought-after keynote speaker known for his pragmatic and iconoclastic style.
David holds academic positions as Extraordinary Professor at the Universities of Pretoria and Stellenbosch and Visiting Professor at the University of Hull, having previously held roles at Bangor University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the University of Warwick, the University of Surrey and others. He has also served as Senior Fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Nanyang University and the Civil Service College in Singapore and has contributed to major research initiatives in complexity science in both the UK and US.
His co-authored Harvard Business Review cover article on leadership (2007) won the Academy of Management award for best practitioner paper, and he has received additional recognition for originality in knowledge management. A former IBM Director of the Institute for Knowledge Management and founder of the Cynefin Centre for Organisational Complexity, he was selected as one of IBM’s global on-demand thinkers. Earlier in his career, he held a range of strategic and management roles across the service sector.
Balancing Human & AI Reasoning in a Complex World – Part 2
In this session, David will introduce practical, complexity-based methods such as SwarmCompass and Estuarine Mapping, offering consultants new, actionable ways to navigate uncertainty and design interventions without relying on prediction. Rather than forcing certainty where none exists, these approaches help practitioners work with the realities of ambiguity, emergence and shifting constraints.
Drawing on decades of experience in complexity science and organisational strategy, David will challenge linear thinking and provide grounded, field-tested tools that can be immediately applied in client environments, particularly where AI, rapid change and increasing system interdependence demand more adaptive ways of working.
